Work Text:
Inara was unsurprised to find that it all started with a job that had enormous potential to go wrong. Nothing unusual; it seemed that the majority of their jobs had the potential to go wrong. This one involved a gala on New Canaan. Inara didn't care to learn every single detail, partially because she had her own life to worry about and partially because it was frankly better for her if she knew as little as possible if she ever ended up in another interrogation room, sitting across from another incompetent commander. From what she'd overheard, there was a contact on Pelorum who had some axe to grind with a distillery owner on New Canaan, though the details were unclear. A business deal fallen through? A cheating spouse? A random act of violence? Inara didn't know and she was half sure that Mal didn't know either. But what she did understand was that they were supposed to be getting an in with someone in the distillery business at a gala with the eventual end goal of ruining someone's business. Inara was not entirely sure how they were supposed to go about doing that, but that wasn't her job. Her job was to grease the wheels of this upper crust social interaction and look so stunning that everyone's guard would be lowered. The usual. At least she still enjoyed that sort of thing and after all, they were on New Canaan and it had been far too long since Inara had been able to indulge in a full pour of the planet's brandy.
So it would, all in all, be lovely to spend time among the elites of New Canaan. Nothing particularly special, but then again, Inara very rarely felt giddy when she went anywhere with a client. She'd felt it a few times at the beginning of her career—once when the president of a shipping conglomerate had requested her by name after hearing of her from one of his directors, once when a retired rancher had carried her over a puddle on the sidewalk like she weighed less than a bag of groceries. It didn't happen anymore. That wasn't to say she didn't enjoy her work or going out. She did still truly enjoy it, something that couldn't be said for all the Companions that Inara had trained with. Sure, Carmela and Pirro were both still working back on Sihnon, but Naeemah had decided she preferred the tea business and Linley had taken up the first client who offered to take him away from all this and was, by all accounts, an excellent father.
Inara absently thought that she ought to check in with all her old friends someday while the crew discussed further details of the job. Despite the similarities to an event on Persephone that felt like a lifetime ago, it was unlikely that there would be dueling when it came to this particular formal occasion, mostly because when it came down to the meeting, Mal was out of the question. It didn't come up immediately, but Zoe remembered suddenly in the middle of their debrief, and told them all about the captain getting blackout drunk in a local pub right after the war and doing a number of questionable things, including shoving a mayoral aide's head against the bar during a brawl, smashing through a brandy barrel, and urinating in the street. Since these things had combined into a long term warrant, it was probably in their best interests to not let him be seen planetside.
So Zoe would attend the gala. No issue there. Frankly, Inara thought that Zoe was just as good if not better than the captain at negotiation meetings. She would still be accompanied by Inara and Jayne would still be waiting on the mule two streets over just in case something went wrong. The only snag ended up being that Zoe did not have a proper outfit for a gala on New Canaan.
"I'd love to say I have at least one dress that would suit something like this, but I'm afraid we're very limited on options," she admitted.
The options turned out to be a yellow linen slip dress that didn't zip all the way up (Inara couldn't fathom why Zoe even had it, but there were probably fond memories or the weight of a gift wrapped up in it), and a shapeless but comfortable blue and green tie-dyed thing that were the same cut as the pink and lavender ones that Kaylee and River had bought during their last stop at Li-Shen's Bazaar. Inara herself had one in reddish brown. Zoe's wedding dress peeked out at them from the drawer it was lovingly tucked into, but they didn't even entertain the thought. They headed for Inara's shuttle next, but a quick test of just one of Inara's gowns (the terracotta silk with the teal belt) told them that trying to get Zoe into any of Inara's wardrobe would be a fruitless task.
"Maybe you could fit in the black floral, but it simply isn't to dress code. And the rest of these…I'm afraid that the instant you flexed any muscles in your shoulders or back, seams would start popping. Our musculature is just so different. Companions aren't often hefting crates and dealing with mare's leg kickback," Inara joked as she carefully hung her dress back up and closed her wardrobe.
"When you got on this ship, you didn't even know what a mare's leg was," Zoe said with a smile.
The crew crowded around the galley table, tossing out ideas. Kaylee brought out all of her own dresses, which were all either too small or deemed too pink or too girlish or just too short on Zoe's frame. It already went without saying that River's wardrobe wouldn't have anything appropriate.
"Could just take…oh, hell, it's like I'm forgetting where you're even going," Mal muttered.
"You were about to suggest I take Kaylee," Inara guessed. Mal nodded reluctantly.
"Oh, captain, I'd go if I had a better right hook," Kaylee promised. "But if anything happens to Inara while we're out there I don't think me bein' there would change anything."
"Let her use your suit," Inara said suddenly to Mal, the image coalescing in her head.
"How's that?"
"Your suit. That Sunday best ensemble with the tail coat. Let Zoe borrow it."
"Ain't sure it'll fit her."
"We can put basting stitches and pins in," Inara told him. "You certainly won't be needing it for the next seven hours, will you? Do you have plans to waltz in the cargo bay by yourself?"
There wasn't really anything he could say in response to that and left to find the suit and pull it out of whatever corner of his bunk he'd shoved it into; grumbling the whole way. "Hold the vest, though," Inara called after him before turning to Simon. "Could I trouble you for that light blue vest of yours for the evening?"
"Of course." And he was off, hurrying down the stairs to the passenger dorms.
"I've got a hair ribbon!" Kaylee said gleefully, immediately running to her bunk, because apparently she could see the plan without Inara even having to explain it.
The hair ribbon was a long and narrow scrap of gray silk covered in tiny blue dots—Inara had only ever seen Kaylee wear it during their occasional dress up parties. River was allowed to borrow it now and then and usually wore it braided into her hair. Simon returned next, bringing both the ice blue silk vest as well as his dress shoes and Mal reappeared moments later, the crumpled suit in his arms.
"Those need a polish," Kaylee said, pointing at Simon's shoes.
"I can—"
"Let Zoe try them on first," Inara interrupted. Once it was clear that the shoes fit, Kaylee occupied herself with polishing the shoes while Simon ironed the hair ribbon and Mal's ludicrously romantic white linen shirt. Jayne eventually wandered out of the room, headed for destinations unknown while Mal hovered over the preparations.
"Inara, when's the last time you were on New Canaan?" Simon asked.
"It's been quite a while," she admitted. "Maybe three months before you came aboard? There was an event like this and one of the distillery owners hired me. He was a client from Sihnon where he had a second house so we already had a connection."
"New Canaan has those bottles of brandy with the whole pear in 'em, right?" Mal asked.
"They fill them there, but I believe the pears are grown elsewhere," Inara told him.
"I've seen the farms with the bottles!" Kaylee said. "They look kind of goofy, hanging off the pear trees."
"It's mostly just a showpiece," Simon told her, shaking out the shirt to check his work. "I had a glass of it as a celebration when I got my attending surgeon position."
"How was it?"
"It was fine, I guess." He shrugged and shuffled the shirt around on the table to tackle a lingering crease. Kaylee sighed; she'd clearly been expecting a story.
After the shirt and ribbon were ironed, Inara and Zoe left the galley with them, Kaylee promising to bring the shoes to Inara's shuttle as soon as she was finished. There was plenty of work to be done when it came to getting Mal's suit to look even passably good on Zoe.
"I'm afraid you won't be able to take off the jacket," Inara said as she pinned makeshift darts into the waistband of the trousers. "I'm good at doing quick repairs and alterations but I'm no tailor."
"As long as nothing falls off of me in the middle of a ballroom," Zoe said with a laugh as she shimmied out of the trousers, careful to not get pricked.
The jacket got similar pinned darts and tucks in the shoulders and the cuffs turned up inside the sleeves and stitched to the lining, and at some point River wandered in to watch Inara work in silence. Maybe this would be another thing that came easily to her and she could help Inara with her wardrobe sometimes—Inara could repair and modify her own gowns, but it was harder when she had to keep adjusting the fit while the dress wasn't actually on her body.
The trousers went back on once the darts were sewn with wide stitches and were followed by a borrowed black leather belt from Simon that River went and fetched before Inara or Zoe could even think to ask her. Inara didn't pay attention to the whole picture, finishing off hemming the trousers while Zoe tucked the shirt in and then helping Zoe slide the jacket over her shoulders and making sure that the folds of extra fabric were lying flat.
She didn't take in the whole outfit until she finished tying the hair ribbon around Zoe's neck as a cravat and turned to find some appropriate earrings to lend the other woman (silver, definitely, and with blue stones if she could find a pair…) and Kaylee came back in with Simon's freshly polished shoes and squealed so loud that Inara was surprised her perfume bottles didn’t shatter.
"Oh, Inara you're a style genius," Kaylee exclaimed. "I gotta admit, when you first asked the captain for his suit I didn't think it would look all that good, but it all came together so nice."
It sure had. Inara had always felt that the suit looked fine on Mal in a gentleman rancher sort of way (which had likely been his intention) but on Zoe…maybe it was the addition of Simon's vest and the coordinating cravat, maybe it was the darts and quick alterations allowing the suit to fit her curves, maybe it was Zoe's hair haloing around her head and tumbling down her back, or maybe it was all of it. Whatever it was, she looked like a tycoon, or a swashbuckler, or a woman king.
"Inara?" Kaylee sounded concerned and Inara realized she was staring at Zoe, mouth agape.
"It really did all come together," Inara managed to stammer out. "Let's just uhm…we'll add some jewelry. One moment."
She found the earrings she'd had in mind (the moonstone ones with sapphire accents) and handed them to Zoe before regaining herself and asking Kaylee to help her pick a gown for the evening.
"I'd intended on the gold silk when I thought I'd be on the captain's arm," she explained. "But that won't do now."
Kaylee hemmed and hawed and River joined her at the wardrobe and they eventually settled on one of Inara's newest acquisitions; a pleated chiffon dress in blush pink and lavender. It went very well with pearls.
There was one last debrief with Mal and Jayne, and while they agreed that Zoe looked the part, talk quickly shifted to which key talking points would flatter the target and what to do in case someone got suspicious. Simon waved goodbye from the hallway next to the infirmary as they returned to Inara's shuttle, preparing to leave.
"Have fun," he called. "The vest looks very good on you."
Inara flew them the short distance to the event hall, feeling off balance and nervous in a way that was foreign to her. Her palms were sweating and the back of her neck tingled. She found that she was doing slow breathing exercises for the last few minutes of the journey, her breaths uncomfortably loud in the small shuttle. Zoe kindly did not say anything about it. Instead, she sat in silence until Inara successfully landed the shuttle in their reserved spot, and then stood and offered her elbow to Inara.
"Inara Serra and escort."
They swept into the ballroom: a high caliber Companion a long way from home out on the Rim, doing a little bit of criminal work when she felt brave enough and changing so much that she knew she could never return to Sihnon despite clinging to her old life and her training, on the arm of a Browncoat corporal who'd been too proud and steadfast in her beliefs to bend to Alliance rule even after her army surrendered, who stared down men with entire cruisers at their command and didn't even blink, who'd been through hellish experiences the likes of which Inara could not even begin to fathom and was still standing and despite all of her suffering still treated everyone with warmth.
The image of the two of them suddenly hit Inara so hard she may as well have been nineteen again, ignoring her teachers' stern reminders that being a Companion had nothing to do with romance and listening breathlessly to her friends report back on their first clients. A lawyer, and he took me to a seven course dinner! An army lieutenant, and he had an entire boutique reserved for private shopping! A business mogul's heir, and he sent me 500 roses the day after!
How foolish we were. How all those outings pale in comparison to this. No client would ever make me feel this…safe.
Inara actually felt dizzy. Zoe immediately felt her trip up a little and put her hand over Inara's.
"Are you alright?" She asked softly.
"Yes," Inara told her immediately. "I'm fine. I'm just…I think this evening has a lot of potential for something good."
Zoe grinned at her.
“I think you might be right about that.”